Ohio Bureau Of Workers Compensation To Modernize Self-Insured Program

In an effort to accelerate the service to self-insuring employers, Ohio’s Bureau of Workers Compensation (BWC) Board of Directors recently sat through a presentation on a series of law and rule changes.

The presentation included a summary of work within the Bureau of Workers Compensation to modernize the self-insured program and improve service to self-insuring employers.

According to BWC Administrator/CEO Steve Buehrer, "Ongoing reform within our self-insured department has improved customer service, and claims and policy management, for self-insuring employers. We have also worked closely with the self-insured community to present this series of rule changes that will provide them with greater flexibility and remove unnecessary burdens that could present a roadblock to success in Ohio."

Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation Supports More than 1,200 Businesses

BWC's Self-Insured Department provides support to the more than 1,200 self-insured businesses that employ close to two million Ohio employees. These employers administer their own workers comp programs and pay benefits directly to their injured workers.

The department presented to the board a number of proposals that will provide more flexibility to self-insured employers.

Among them are these rule changes impacting assessments BWC collects to fund administrative costs and the Self-Insured Employer Guaranty Fund (SIEGF), established to pay claims of self-insuring employers that have defaulted.

The proposed changes would:

● Allow self-insured employers in good standing to submit multiple forms security. All self-insured employers currently must provide a guarantee from a parent company as protection in the event of a default. However, many self-insured employers prefer the option of submitting a letter of credit.

● End a long-standing policy that resulted in multiple assessments on employers with subsidiaries. For it's first three years, a self-insured entity must pay an assessment based on a percentage of the premium paid in the year prior to becoming self-insured. The proposal would remove this assessment that is presently in place with the addition of each new subsidiary to a current self-insured policy.

Efforts Include Focus on Collecting Appropriate Securities

The department also noted the results of work to improve customer service, productivity and overall business performance. These efforts include ensuring BWC is collecting appropriate securities and more effectively managing defaulted claims, which resulted in a 24% decline in the SIEGF assessment in 2012.

The department has also:

Reduced the average time it takes to renew a policy from 81 days after the employer's scheduled renewal date to 30 days prior to the renewal date;
Reduced a backlog of policy renewals from 33 percent of all policies to less than one percent;
Improved processing of applications by 44 percent to an average of 67 days; and
Expedited response time to injured worker complaints by 33 percent.

Author Michael B. Stack, CPA, Director of Operations, Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. is an expert in employer communication systems and part of the Amaxx team helping companies reduce their workers compensation costs by 20% to 50%. He is a writer, speaker, and website publisher. www.reduceyourworkerscomp.com. Contact: mstack@reduceyourworkerscomp.com.